Sanshiba Shozai of Japan chose to be the first glass processor in the world to invest in GlastonInsight™, the intelligent online assistance system, at the same time as it ordered the Glaston RC350™ tempering furnace.
The main reasons for the investments are to increase the Sanshiba Shozai’s tempering production throughput along with being able to better monitor and develop the tempering process. The company is getting ready to meet the growing demand for architectural glass now that Tokyo will host the Olympic Games in 2020.
Earlier in 2014, Norihide Funase, Director at Sanshiba, and Toshiyuki Takashima, Manager of Tempering, visited various glass processors to see the technologies they were using. The Tvitec factory in Spain was one that had just started operating its new RC350™ furnace from Glaston. “For a long time, we have been interested in Glaston machinery, especially the tempering furnaces. We were impressed by the production capacity and the latest technology,” Funase says. “After careful comparison, we chose the Glaston RC350™ furnace because we feel that it best matches our business expansion goals. We feel that Glaston’s tempering line performance and quality is much better compared with other solutions. So, this will be our first Glaston machine.”
“We are especially looking forward to GlastonInsight™, which automatically gives our operators a proposal for quality improvement,” Funase says. “It’s based on the iLooK™ system that measures glass inproduction online. This latest system will help ensure that we consistently provide our customers with the highest possible glass quality.”
GlastonInsight™ uses an accurate temperature scanner and online quality measurements to help raise glass quality to an excellent and more uniform level. The system provides operators with automatic proposals on how to tune the process to achieve outstanding production results. It also helps minimize waste because the process is tuned immediately if there are any deviations.